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Survivorship
The stories and experiences are written by people after cancer treatments. These stories are written for those learning how to get back to work, college or just trying to be themselves again. Just getting past treatments isn’t enough, it is surviving and thriving that is key to being you again.
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My Scar, My Story
At 19, melanoma left a lime-sized hole in the back of my head. That scar tells a story I spent decades stashing away. “Since you are already here,” my mother urged, “why don’t you also have the doctor look at that thing you found on the back of your head?” I was 19 and the picture of health.
Read More...The Unexpected Gift of Hardship
There’s a peculiar irony in the act of surviving cancer. One might assume that the end of treatment signals a triumphant return to normalcy, a victory lap, if you will.
Read More...Time Doesn’t Erase Memories
I happily chattered as I walked into a visitor center for a large company along with about 50 others in my similar profession. I knew we were visiting a company with a healthcare imaging division, but I also knew them for many other products.
Read More...The Hardest Battle I Faced After Surviving Cancer
Before cancer, life felt steady, predictable, and even comfortable. I believed that when something went wrong, you handled it. If you got sick, you saw a doctor, got better, and moved on. That was the script I’d always followed. I made plans, assuming time was on my side. I thought I was doing fine. I thought I was safe.
Read More...The Second Battle: Rebuilding After Cancer
We spend more than a year—sometimes even longer—fighting every day for our lives through cancer. Then, in remission, our bodies remain on high alert, bracing for the next blow.
Read More...Surviving Survivorship
No one prepared me for survivorship. No one braced me for how much harder surviving cancer would be than it ever was fighting it. No one told me it would be impossible to reclaim a life that once existed before cancer crudely intruded.
Read More...Survivorship – Rediscovering Life
It’s been a little more than two years since I kept reading the biopsy report over and over in my hands, the words “Invasive breast carcinoma” not sinking in.
Read More...Reality is…. Surviving Survival
Today’s the day! After all the tests, doctor’s appointments, biopsy, bloodwork, scans, treatment, hospital stays, and infusions, you get to ring the bell!! You are in remission!
Read More...The “In-Between”
One day, someone who just finished their active treatment asked me, “So what is survivorship?” At that moment, I suddenly froze, even though I’ve been in “it” for several years, I didn’t have an immediate response for her.
Read More...My Resilience
The cancer journey can take a lot from you. Outsiders may think it’s only the physical things that get to you, like your hair. They’re wrong.
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